Pubdate: Tue, 01 Jun 2004
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/TorontoSun/home.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Sarah Green, Toronto Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

'NEVER WAS ANY HEROIN'

Whereabouts Of Alleged Evidence At Heart Of Cop's Trial

ABRAHAM BAILEY, the former Toronto police officer charged with heroin 
trafficking, vented frustration in court yesterday as his lawyer prepared 
to have the case against him thrown out. "There never was any heroin. I've 
screamed there never was any heroin," Bailey, 54, said in court after 
pleading not guilty yesterday to possession of heroin and possession for 
the purposes of trafficking.

Bailey's trial was scheduled to start yesterday before Ontario Court 
Justice Bruce Young, but was delayed until Friday, when defence lawyer 
Harry Doan will argue to have the charges in the two-year-old case stayed.

At the heart of the defence argument are 51 grams of heroin that have 
"either gone missing from police custody" or were "never there, as a result 
of police failure to quantify the amount of substance at issue," Doan wrote 
in the motion.

OUT ON DAY PAROLE

Bailey was charged after 53.9 grams of heroin were allegedly found in his 
throat on June 18, 2002 during a random police search at a halfway house. 
The former officer, who resigned from the force in 1996, was living at the 
Keele Correctional Centre while on day parole.

Doan said the amount of heroin now alleged is three grams.

"The big discrepancy in the amount of heroin that they say now exists is 
one of the cornerstones of the motion that we're going to be bringing," 
Doan said outside court.

At the time he was searched in 2002, Bailey also suffered from a "heart 
episode" and was unconscious for weeks in hospital.

In court yesterday, Bailey vented his frustration about the case, alleging 
the evidence against him had been "planted."

"Up until the 11th hour, it was 53.9 (grams). Today I'm facing three 
grams," Bailey said. "We've had a Houdini. It has all disappeared."

He was cautioned by Justice Young to hold his comments.
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